


How (Not) To Uncover A Superhero’s Identity

by FirePhoenix101



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Fiction, Fire, Fluff, Gay, LGBTQ, Multi, Romance, Slow Burn, Sorta Magic?, Superheroes, Superpowers, Swooning, Villains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2019-12-30 07:26:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18310955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirePhoenix101/pseuds/FirePhoenix101
Summary: “You know, most people try to avoid danger when they see it.”“I’m not most people.”





	1. Awkward Reporters & Smooth Superheroes

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! Thank you for giving this story a shot. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> All characters are mine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins . . .

First and foremost, it should be established that Lea Lewis had not planned on any of this.

Of course, hiding behind a store display while a robber points a gun at the head of the cashier that had just been helping her check out was not exactly something she could have expected, but still.

Now, it was at this point that Lea was faced with a difficult decision. She could either attempt to reach for her phone (which she had unceremoniously dropped when the thief first made his entrance), at the risk of him spotting her, or she could crawl away, and possibly make enough noise to be noticed.

Thankfully, she was spared the conflict.

“Put that gun down, or so help me!”

“What the-” She muttered, craning her neck to steal a glance of whoever had just interrupted the heist.

Both the robber and the terrified cashier were stunned, staring at the doors, where a young girl (who seemed to be in her mid-teens, around the same age as Lea) stood, looking like she had just sprung out of a comic book. The stranger (who had struck a heroic pose) appeared to be wearing a suit not unlike one that a superhero might don, covered from head to toe in a flame colored leather -or was it spandex?- costume, with the red, orange, and yellow material accented by her electric green eyes.

Said green eyes, alluring as they were, dulled in comparison to the literal _flames_ bursting from the girl’s hands.

“What did I just say?” The fiery stranger stated, sounding rather exasperated, “Drop your weapon. Now. Don’t make me ask you again.”

The wide-eyed robber obeyed, his gun clattering as it hit the ground.

“Thank you. Now, please return that money to-“ She paused, glancing at the cashier’s name tag, “Amanda, here.”

Begrudgingly, he tossed the near-full grocery bag of cash on the conveyor belt, the poor girl -Amanda- offering a muted ‘thank you’ before beginning to return the money to the cash register.

Now, while this situation was unfolding, Lea had taken the opportunity to grab her cell phone, and was now recording the aforementioned events (Not to mention quietly fangirling over the appearance of a person who was, quite literally, a real-life _superhero_ ). She was, after all, an aspiring reporter, and no self-respecting reporter would stand to the side while these events were occurring and not record it.

Unfortunately, her mother had chosen that particular moment to call, most likely to ask her why she hadn’t returned home yet.

The ring seemed to echo throughout the store, and as Lea scrambled to turn it off, the fire spewing superhero abandoned her companions to walk over to the display Lea was hidden behind and raised an eyebrow, looking almost amused.

“Uh, hello?” The dark-skinned girl stated, though it came out as more of a question. Offering a slight smile, she held out her gloved hand, simultaneously extinguishing the flames.

“Hi? Um. I’m Lea. Lewis. Lea Lewis, uhm.” Lea stammered, cautiously taking the superhero’s hand. “Who are you?”

Seemingly hesitating, she replied, “Phoenix. Yeah! Uh, yes, my name is Phoenix. Are you alright, Miss Lewis?”

“Yes, yes, I’m perfectly fine.” Lea excised, brushing away the brown hair obscuring her vision. Not that her vision was much good anyways, she wore contacts for a reason, but her hair (which really shouldn’t be this much of a problem, considering she had swapped out her shoulder-length hair for a pixie cut months ago) remained her largest visual issue to date.

“You know, most people try to avoid danger when they see it.” Phoenix stated, donning an almost cocky smirk.

“I’m not most people.”

“Clearly.” The shorter girl smiled, turning back around to face the criminal. “As for you, I’ve already alerted the police as to your presence. They should be arriving at any moment.”

As if on cue, seconds after she finished speaking sirens could be heard in the distance. The robber’s face instantly drained of color, while the poor cashier, who appeared to have finished putting away the nearly stolen cash, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Unfortunately, as much as I’d love to stay and deal with you myself, I have a prior engagement that I cannot miss. So,” Phoenix turned to Lea. “I’d appreciate it greatly if you would ensure that this man gets arrested. If it’s no trouble, of course.”

Lea’s only response was nodding violently, her hazel eyes slightly fearful.

“Excellent. Now, if you’ll excuse me-”

“Wait!” The word came tumbling out of Lea’s mouth before she could stop it.

“Yes?” Phoenix raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk dancing across her lips.

Scrambling for an excuse to get the girl to stay, Lea proclaimed, “I’m a, uh, reporter, er, well, I want to be, and I was wondering if, uh, I could get an interview?”

“Well . . .” She seemed to consider the request for a moment, before continuing. “I can’t at the moment, but if you were to meet me at, I don’t know, the park, tomorrow , 7 pm sharp, I wouldn’t mind pausing my patrol for a short conversation with a cute local reporter.” There was that smirk again, as Lea’s face lit up in a blush red enough to rival Phoenix’s suit.

“Uh, sure! Yeah, that’d be great, thank you!” Stammered the caucasian girl who was not only a cute local reporter, but also the world’s awkwardest reporter.

“It’s a date then,” Phoenix winked, never once wiping off her cocky smirk, turning on her heel -just as the police pulled into the parking lot- and rushed out the sliding glass doors.

~|*|~

Let it never be said that Adara Solarin was an impatient person. She was quite the opposite, really, it was just an exciting day.

If one’s very first interview as a superhero could be considered exciting by the general public, that is.

Brushing aside the thought, Adara let her mind wander to more important matters, twirling her raven black hair around her pencil.

It wasn’t that she had taken on the personsa of Phoenix for attention, necessarily, she really hadn’t, but could she be blamed? Not only was this, again, her first interview, but it was with her _insanely_ attractive classmate.

Lea Lewis may have been a dorky, awkward, clumsy nerd, but she was one of the most popular girls in the 10th grade, and the prime subject of Adara’s affections.

Honestly, how could she _not_ love Lea? Adara questioned internally, casting a glance at the desk next to her’s, where Lea was fast at work, scribbling down notes and biting her lip in that absolutely adorable way she did when she was focused. God, she had it bad. If only she could flirt the way she had the day before as herself. It was just so much easier to say things when you were hiding behind a mask. Adara could never do that, but Phoenix could do it as much as she wanted without incident (so long as Lea didn’t mind).

Actually, come to think of it, Lea hadn’t seemed upset at all by her smooth talk (if you could call it that). She had . . . smiled. Like she was flattered! She had even blushed a bit! Which, it should be noted, was, without a doubt, the single cutest thing Adara had ever seen.

Hearing the teacher (who was, in Adara’s opinion, _way_ too strict) clear her throat, the girl scrambled to focus her attention on the lesson, as opposed to how beautiful Lea Lewis was.

Giving a frustrated sigh, Adara returned to her own notebook and began copying down the equations written on the board in her chicken scratch-like handwriting. That may have been the biggest difference between her and Lea; while Lea’s handwriting was a flowing cursive that Adara couldn’t help but envy, _her_ script was comparable to that of a toddler.

Now, it was worth noting that there were many other things that the two girls didn’t have in common. Adara was a bit of a jock, between being captain of their school’s soccer and basketball teams, not to mention being a literal superhero (though that hardly qualified as a workout, considering the prior day had been Phoenix’s first public appearance). Superheroine or not, Adara was one of the school’s prime athletes.

Plus the addition exercise gained from all of the working out she did before school. Superheroes have to be fit after all, for fighting crime and the like (one of their other similarities; Lea worked out at the same gym), so the push-ups and boxing practice would hopefully come in handy at some point, if she ever had to fist-fight a criminal (though her fire powers would most likely scare them off).

On the other hand, Lea was the textbook definition of a nerd (and she meant that in the best possible way). She was the captain of the Spelling and Debate teams, helped tutor middle schoolers, was the front runner for Valedictorian, and it was safe to say that she was every teacher’s favorite student, what with her undeniable intelligence and kindhearted nature. And, on top of all that, she was the Student Council President, and had been for the past 2 years (4, if you counted 7th & 8th grade). Plus, Adara hadn’t been lying when she called the girl cute. She was utterly stunning, in every sense of the word.

Not to mention the fact that she was a proud Bisexual (she had a pride flag keychain and everything!), which made her exactly the type of person that Adara (who was about as gay as they come) would find herself attracted to. God, she was just so **perfect**!

That wasn’t to say that they were _extremely_ different. They really did have a lot of things in common. Opinions on political matters (they were both strongly Democratic), nervous tics (each of the girls tended to fidget), and friend groups, to name a few.

Lea and Adara shared a rather large group of friends, and were actually very good friends themselves; something many of their peers found odd, considering their different positions in the school’s social hierarchy. Lea was near, if not at, the top, and Adara was far lower, not quite a loser, but nowhere even close to Lea’s popularity. Another thing Adara loved about Lea -she liked everyone, and everyone liked her. She was an _extremely_ popular girl, and yet she didn’t act conceited or rude; she treated everyone well, and Adara utterly adored that quality of hers.

Luckily for her, the two girls shared many of the same classes. Lea was, for lack of a better word, a genius. But, Adara was too. They were both top of their classes (which were all Advanced), though Lea did get better grades than Adara. She was _extremely_ intelligent, both streetwise and book wise.

Adara’s swooning was, unfortunately, cut short as the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.

Grabbing her books, Adara raced out of the classroom. If she hurried, she’d have time to finish her homework before she ate dinner, and later went on patrol. She didn’t really understand the point of patrol, considering she was really only worked in the afternoon, but the superheroes in the comics always seemed to, so she probably should too. For that matter, how on Earth could she expect to finish the two separate essays she had due that Thursday with patrol, other homework, and a basketball practice the next day. Luckily for her, soccer didn’t begin ‘til after the basketball season, because if she had _both_ of those sports to worry about, than there was no way she’d have time for any of her other work.

Plus, she had to make a few revisions to her suit (one of the zippers needed replacing) and deal with another training session with her father on power control (after a few mishaps ending in 3rd degree burns, the source of her abilities -thank you genetics- had decided to teach her). Besides, with her annoying habits of procrastination (another difference; Lea always handed in her assignments early), she was close to having quite a bit of work overdue.

Geez, who knew being a self-proclaimed superhero was so much work?


	2. Interviews & Investigations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea is persistent, Adara is pining, Makenzie is pushy, and they all need a vacation.
> 
> FOR REFERENCE:  
> HaShem is the Jewish God. Lea's parents are of separate religions (Christian & Jewish), so she uses both God & HaShem interchangeably.
> 
> There are several groups, songs, books, etc mentioned in this chapter. I don't own the rights to any of them.

"What on Earth are you supposed to wear when you go out to interview a superhero? I mean, she's literally something out of a fucking Marvel movie! I want to leave a good impression-"

"Didn't you two already get to know each other, though? When she stopped that robbery at Walmart?" Lea's best friend, Makenzie Cohen, asked, flinging herself so that the upper half of her body dangled haphazardly off the edge of Lea's bed.

Lea gave an overly dramatic sigh. "Well, I mean, yeah, but we didn't really talk that much, Mak; she just flirted with me-"

"I don't know how you can be so calm about having a literal superhero flirting with you. And an attractive one, too! Honestly, if I were gay, or, y' know, bi, I'd totally hit that." Lea gave a look. "Or I would help my amazing Bisexual friend to get a date with her, that works too!"

Lea rolled her eyes, standing up from her bed and crossing the floor to her mirror. She gave a little twirl, gave herself a once-over, and nodded. "This'll work." The short, casual violet dress complimented her eyes well (or, at least, that's what Mak had said when she first tried it on), and this did give her the opportunity to try on her new black ankle boots (Leas had a bit of a shoe obsession and had at least 3 other pairs that looked almost exactly the same, but that's beside the point). Now, all she had to do was put on a bit of makeup, brush her hair, and pray to HaShem that she didn't massively fuck this up. 

It wasn’t as though this was Lea’s first interview, at any rate. She was an intern for the local newspaper, so she was sent around town to interview people near daily. Not to mention the fact that she was the head of their school’s news team as well, so it was safe to say she was well versed in the art of reporting. This was, however, her first time interviewing a superhero, so she had every right to be a little scared. At least, she figured she did.

“So, what time are you meeting her?” Makenzie asked.

"I just told you."

"I have a crappy memory, Le!"

“Seven. I gotta leave in, like, 5 minutes so I can get ready, though.” Lea replied with a sigh, running her fingers through her hair.

“Noted. Oh! Guess who talked to me about the dance yesterday?!” Mak exclaimed, seeming to suddenly remember something important. Though, to be fair, Makenzie was the type of person who cared so much that everything was important to her.

“Ray?” Lea asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah! And he was totally implying that he wanted to go with me! I mean, he didn't ask me out, but he was sorta making it sound like he wanted to take me!" Makenzie cheered, sighing in a lovesick manner afterward. 

Lea gave a fond smile at her friend before making her way to her desk, which was tucked away underneath her loft bed. She grabbed her white messenger's bag from its place on her chair and slung it over her shoulder. 

"Can you give me my camera? The case is hanging on the bedpost." Lea asked, nodding towards the corner of her bed.

The $500 camera and its case came flying down towards her with nothing more than a "Head's up!" and a throw akin to that of a Yankees pitcher (Lea wasn't much of a baseball person herself, but her mother loved the sport so she dealt with it).

Narrowly catching her device, Lea placed it in her bag, took a breath, and turned to her friend.

"Wish me luck, okay?"

"You've got this, Le!" Makenzie assured with a grin. She swung down from the lost, grabbing Lea's shoulders and shoving her out the door. "Now go have fun on your date!"

"It's not a date-!"

The door slammed in her face.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment if you notice any mistakes, or if you just want to talk!
> 
> Any compliments or constructive criticism is welcome, and the next update will be in a week.
> 
> Any kudos is greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
